The Senior Executive Service in NJ State Government

What the SES is

The statute describes the SES as positions with substantial managerial, policy influencing or policy executing responsibilities, as the Commission determines, and directs the Commission to adopt rules on selection, placement, transfer, development, compensation, separation and performance appraisal of SES employees, and on reinstating career employees to the career service (N.J.S.A. 11A:3-3). It also says the SES is not subject to the rest of Title 11A unless otherwise specified.

One exclusion comes straight from the statute: titles included in a collective negotiations unit may not be included in the SES (N.J.S.A. 11A:3-3).

The SES has two size limits, and the statute and the rule word each one differently.

Career status, for the rule's purposes, means permanent status in a career service title in State government, and it includes people on an approved leave of absence from a permanent career position (N.J.A.C. 4A:3-2.1(c)).

How a position is designated

Allocation is by specific position, not by job title or category (N.J.A.C. 4A:3-2.2(a)). Two people with the same title can therefore sit in different services. The rule gives each test its own meaning. A substantial managerial or policy executing position has significant control of substantial resources, responsibility for major programmatic outcomes, or responsibility for a major organizational unit. A policy influencing position influences the department's or agency's direction, mission, priorities, major goals or objectives (N.J.A.C. 4A:3-2.2(a)1, 2).

An SES position reports only to a higher level unclassified position or to another SES position (N.J.A.C. 4A:3-2.2(b)). Each department head submits an executive/senior management plan with the department's SES position requests, under procedures the Chairperson sets, and a position allocated to the SES is part of the department's executive/senior management cadre (N.J.A.C. 4A:3-2.2(c)). If the major functions of a vacant SES position change and the change is not in the plan, the Chairperson reviews the new functions before the position is posted or filled (N.J.A.C. 4A:3-2.2(c)4).

Inside a department, the department head may have a member moved from one SES position to another, and the appointing authority reviews the member's pay at that point and notifies the Chairperson or designee. A move to cover an emergency assignment for six months or less needs no notice (N.J.A.C. 4A:3-2.2(d), (e)).

How people are appointed

Both permanent career service employees and qualified people without permanent status are eligible for SES appointments (N.J.A.C. 4A:4-1.2(b)). Like every appointment in the career, unclassified and senior executive services, an SES appointment is subject to review and approval by the Chairperson or designee (N.J.A.C. 4A:4-1.10(a)).

N.J.A.C. 4A:3-2.3(a) sets out the selection process:

• Vacancies are posted, at a minimum, within the department. No posting is needed if the department selects the incumbent when the position is first allocated to the SES. A Statewide posting goes through the Chairperson or designee.
• The department contacts the Chairperson or designee for recruiting help before recruiting outside State service.
• When a career service position is converted to the SES, the incumbent is told in writing and offered the whole selection process.
• The department chooses its own selection process, but must apply it consistently to every candidate for the position.
• The department head forwards the selection, and final appointment is subject to approval by the Chairperson or designee.

The statute gives a permanent career employee whose title is assigned to the SES the option, with appointing authority approval, of joining it (N.J.S.A. 11A:3-3). Under the rule, a permanent employee in a converted position who is not selected, or who chooses not to join, is a "non-appointed incumbent" and is placed in a career service position in the same organizational unit, at the same class code, through a set order: a vacant position, then the position of a provisional without career status, then the permanent title of someone serving provisionally in it (N.J.A.C. 4A:3-2.3(b)). The employee may agree to a title at the same or lower class code instead, layoff procedures apply if no placement works, and the department head may recommend keeping the salary from the prior permanent title (N.J.A.C. 4A:3-2.3(b)4 to 6). A non-appointed incumbent without career status may be reassigned to an unclassified title or to a vacant career title with no eligible list, or terminated (N.J.A.C. 4A:3-2.3(c)).

Pay and evaluation

SES positions are designated no-range, meaning no class code is assigned to them. Salary payments are still subject to restrictions set by the Chairperson and the Director of Management and Budget (N.J.A.C. 4A:3-2.5(a)).

A career employee whose position moves into the SES and who is appointed as a member starts at no less than the salary held at the time of appointment (N.J.A.C. 4A:3-2.5(b)). After that, salary advancement is based on performance. There are no steps within a salary level and no increments for length of service (N.J.A.C. 4A:3-2.5(c)). That is the main difference from the career service step system the pay rules guide describes.

Every SES member is evaluated annually by the department head or a designee, under procedures set by the Chairperson or designee (N.J.A.C. 4A:3-2.4).

Leave and benefits

Members with underlying career service status receive the same vacation, sick and administrative leave as career service employees. Members without it follow their department's unclassified leave plan, if there is one (N.J.A.C. 4A:3-2.6(a)). State vacation leave is earned on years of continuous State service in the career, senior executive or unclassified service, so SES time counts toward the vacation tiers (N.J.A.C. 4A:6-1.2(a)). The leave guide covers those tiers.

All SES members may participate in the leave programs open to career employees and to a department's executive/senior management cadre, including family and medical leave, donated leave and voluntary furlough, subject to each program's eligibility requirements (N.J.A.C. 4A:3-2.6(b)).

Taking a promotional exam while in the SES

An SES member may apply for a career service promotional examination in the member's current unit scope, as long as the permanent title held just before the SES appointment would have made the member eligible (N.J.A.C. 4A:3-2.6(c)). Someone who was permanent in a job band may apply for a promotion outside the band if the band and promotional eligibility rules would allow it, or for an advancement appointment within the band (N.J.A.C. 4A:3-2.6(c)1, 2). The general eligibility rules are in the promotional exams guide.

Separation and the right to return

A department head may separate any SES member from the SES at the department head's discretion on 20 days' notice, with a copy of the notice going to the Chairperson or designee at the same time it goes to the employee (N.J.A.C. 4A:3-2.9(a)).

What happens next depends on career status. A member with underlying career status has the right to return to the highest class code permanent title held, in the same organizational unit (which, for this rule, means the appointing authority), provided the title was held within current continuous service (N.J.A.C. 4A:3-2.9(c)). The return follows the same order as a non-appointed incumbent's placement: a vacancy, then a provisional without career status, then someone serving provisionally in the returning employee's permanent title. If the old title no longer exists or no longer fits because the position went into the SES, lateral and demotional rights are determined as if it still existed. The employee and appointing authority may agree on a title at the same or lower class code, and layoff procedures apply if nothing else works (N.J.A.C. 4A:3-2.9(c)3 to 5).

A returning member has permanent status in the title immediately and seniority as if it had kept accruing in the permanent title held before the SES (N.J.A.C. 4A:3-2.9(c)6). Salary is what it would have been without the SES appointment, but never more than the SES salary. If that guaranteed figure is above the new title's range, it stays fixed until the range catches up, and the department head may recommend a higher figure (N.J.A.C. 4A:3-2.9(c)7).

The statute frames the same right: permanent career employees who join and are later separated have a right of reinstatement to the career service at the level held before entering the SES, unless they were separated, after an opportunity for a hearing, for reasons that would be cause for removal from the career service (N.J.S.A. 11A:3-3). Under the rule, removing an SES member with career status from State service, or returning one to a lower level than the return rule provides, goes through the major discipline procedures in N.J.A.C. 4A:2-2 (N.J.A.C. 4A:3-2.9(b)). The discipline and removal guide explains those procedures.

A member without underlying career status has no return right. On separation, that person may be appointed to an unclassified title or to a vacant career title with no eligible list, or terminated (N.J.A.C. 4A:3-2.9(e)).

Seniority and layoffs

For layoff purposes, time in the SES is not deducted from seniority in State service, provided the employee had permanent service before the SES appointment (N.J.A.C. 4A:8-2.4(d)4). If the position an SES member holds is vacated or abolished in a reduction in force and the member has career status, the member has lateral, demotional and special reemployment rights based on the permanent title held just before the SES appointment (N.J.A.C. 4A:3-2.9(d)). The layoff guide explains how those rights work.

Political activity, reprisal and equal opportunity

SES employees are bound by the same political activity rule as career employees. Neither may use the position to control or affect another person's political action, or engage in political activity during working hours (N.J.A.C. 4A:10-1.2(a)). Those whose principal employment is in a program financed by federal grants or loans are also subject to the Hatch Act prohibitions the rule lists (N.J.A.C. 4A:10-1.2(b)).

The reprisal rule protects SES employees, career and unclassified employees alike from retaliation for a lawful disclosure of a violation of law or rule, governmental mismanagement or abuse of authority (N.J.A.C. 4A:2-5.1(a)). Protection from action based on permissible political activities or affiliations is narrower: it covers career service employees and SES employees with career status (N.J.A.C. 4A:2-5.1(b)). A reprisal or political coercion appeal goes to the Commission within 20 days of the action or of when the employee should reasonably have known of it (N.J.A.C. 4A:2-5.2(a)).

Equal employment opportunity applies to everyone in, or applying to, the career, unclassified and senior executive services (N.J.A.C. 4A:7-1.1(a)).